Friday 21 August 2009

Summer Trainings...

So the weekly blog ideo sort of got lost over summer...
I had a very very busy time over summer with constant coaching, training and working pretty much nonstop.
I did get a little holiday for a week in italy which was great and my other coaches did a fantastic job of covering classes for me.

I've been sort of plagued with minor injuries all summer which has been a bit annoying for my technical progress but ive accepted that injury is part of training and found ways round it.

I think a little round up of my training and progression over summer is a good way to look at where I got next with my training.

Technical Training.

Over Summer I've been working loads on touch and light movement. I've had pretty much constant injuries around my feet/ankles so it's been low impact all the way.
Ive learned loads about being very precise and controlled in my movement which is at the core of all of training, even conditioning excercises.
When ive been free of injury, I've seen my jump getting bigger and more confident which is great, but i wish I could have progressed more. Injuries make me sad...

I think ive started to move a lot stronger and faster also, big routes are feeling very seamless and fast which is nice.

Overall my technical progress has been ok but I hope to progress a lot more during winte when my foor completely heals.

Strength Training.
After experimenting with a month of no conditioning and ending up with aches and pains, and also really missing it, ive been working very very hard physically.

Big conditioning sessions, loads of quadrupedie and even on my 'play' days ive been slipping in some good hard work.
Strength work is a very big part of Parkour - it's not all about the movement and it's something that can always be worked on no matter what injuries or aches you have. In a way i think conditioning and strength work encapsulates the spirit of Parkour more than any other aspects. It requires discipline, focus, serious work and a strive to improve and push one's limits.
I wish that more traceurs would see this. I tend to think that without conditioning/quadrupedie you arent really practicing parkour at all. If you just move you are only training one aspect of the discipline.

so i'm feeling very good about my strength but have some new targets set for the next few months, particularly working my legs while my foor is injured.

Coaching.
My summer of coaching has been a massive massive learning experience with loads of workshops over many different environments and people.
Im also coaching at Rendezvous IV next week. It's a massive honour to be asked to help out there, and it's also going to be a really interesting challenge to work with practitioners who are miles ahead of me in terms of experience.
Im reallylooking forward to it and feeling the buzz about all my coaching and classes at the moment.

It's been a good summer overall, just need to keep working and keep my head down.

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